I was just a tiny baby, clinging to my mother in the Congo forest, when I was ripped from her arms by a strange man. I’ve never been so scared! My mom was butchered and sold as meat. I guess I was lucky that I was too small to eat or I would have shared her fate, but I sure didn’t feel lucky at the time.

The man who killed my mother sold me to another man who worked at a village market. He kept me tied up on such a short rope that I could barely walk around. I remember feeling so hopeless and lonely.

But one day when I was about three months old, two very nice people took me away from that terrible market. They run an organization that helps orphaned children in D.R. Congo, and although their organization doesn’t help orphaned monkeys like me, when they saw how miserable I was they couldn’t walk away and leave me there.

Nicole, Will, and their children gave me love, healthy food, and space where I could run around and climb in trees; it was almost as nice as my mother taking care of me. I soon learned that when they said “Bobo,” they were talking to me. But they needed to go back to the U.S. and so they needed to find a permanent home for me.

Nicole, Will, and their children gave me love, healthy food, and space where I could run around and climb in trees.

They contacted a friend who put them in touch with the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA). They asked the Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro (CRPL) to give me a forever home. Lwiro was happy to do this, but getting me there was really complicated! PASA, Lwiro, and Will and Nicole arranged it. It took them a long time to get a permit for me to travel. Then Will and Nicole brought me to a tiny airstrip day after day after day, hoping a plane would come that could take me to my new home, but it didn’t come. They had to leave Africa very soon and they were worried that I wouldn’t leave for Lwiro in time!

But finally a little plane landed and took me away to another airstrip. Some nice people from an organization named Gorilla Doctors brought me onto a boat, which finally took me to Lwiro.

Now I have a lot of space where I can run around and play with other monkeys, and everyone gives me loving care.

I know a lot of other baby monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos are orphans because their families were killed for bushmeat. Many of them spend their entire lives with chains and ropes around their necks, never able to move more than a few feet. Some of them are only raised until they’re big enough to be killed for meat.